Consumer Nation
- Holiday Tipping: Who And How Much
- Deep Discounts Should Make It a Very Tech-y Holiday
- This Holiday Season—Little Joy For Those Hard Hit
- Victoria's Secret Hopes to Rekindle Desire for Lingerie
- Consumers Feel Guilty: JC Penney CEO
- Mixed Signals Come From Retail Sector as Holidays Draw Near
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- Dollar General Trades Higher After Its IPO
- Sports Betting Web Site Sets Odds on Black Friday
- What's The Forecast from Retailers? Proceed With Caution
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- Why Amazon Rules Retail
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- JAL Slides to Record Low on Bankruptcy Jitters
- Paul: Audit the Fed
- Hewlett-Packard Profit Rises, Matches Guidance
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
- Holiday Travel Outlook
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- HP's Mark Hurd
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Gold Prices Can Double in 3 Years: Portfolio Manager
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
- Obama says Boosting US Jobs is Top Priority
- More Consumers Giving 'Black Friday' the Cold Shoulder
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- Hewlett-Packard Earnings Rise, Match Guidance
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Cramer: What Monday’s Housing Number Really Means
- Why the Dollar Will Likely Stay Weak for Some Time
- Bear, Lehman Execs Weren't Wiped Out by Crisis: Study
- How Real Estate Investors Skew Housing's Reality
Text Size 
News Editor
Despite all its success, Wal-Mart Stores has yet to conquer the online retail world. With its launch of the Wal-Mart Marketplace, the world's largest retailer may be hoping to change that.
 |
AP |
Last week, Wal-Mart's [WMT
Loading...
()
] online strategy took a dramatic turn when it announced it would open up its Web site to outside vendors. Those retailers, who are far lesser known than the retailing giant, will fulfill the orders themselves, shipping from their sites, handling exchanges and returns.
This model borrows a page from Amazon.com [AMZN
Loading...
()
]. Sure, Wal-Mart is not the first traditional retailer to do so. Others such as Sears Holdings [SHLD
Loading...
()
], which began selling Whitney Automotive Group auto parts through Sears.com last year, does this as well.
But Wal-Mart's attempt to establish a virtual online mall underscores some of the trends that are being seen in the online retail space.
In recent months, a bigger and bigger portion of online sales have been shifting to Amazon.com and other pure-play Internet retailers, says ComScore analyst Andrew Lipsman.
Although it is not completely clear why this is going on, there are some theories. For many online shoppers, browsing over to Amazon.com to begin the shopping process is becoming a "default" behavior, Lipsman said. Multi-channel retailers also may be spending less to promote their products online.
If this continues, it's a dangerous trend for Amazon's rivals.
It's shaping up to be a competitive Christmas holiday season, with retailers already jockeying for consumer dollars. Some online retailers are already previewing holiday merchandise, and the pace of email promotions has risen.
The biggest problem retailers are having online is getting consumers to stop window-shopping and start buying.
According to ComScore, the number of consumers going to online shopping sites rose in the second quarter, with some of the leading Web sites reporting double-digit increases in the number of unique visitors to their Web sites. However, online sales in the first half of this year are down slightly compared with the year-ago period, ComScore said.
This may be a sign that consumers are continuing to be more thoughtful about their purchases. Some may be researching prices aggressively before buying.
It's noteworthy that many of Wal-Mart's retail partners in its Marketplace venture are supplying products for categories where Wal-Mart is less established. For example, one partner is ebags, which will give a boost to Wal-Mart by providing a wider range of fashionable accessories. Another, Dreams' [DRJ
Loading...
()
] Pro Team, provides sports memorabilia. And both of these categories could conceivably be important during the upcoming holiday shopping period.
More from Consumer Nation:
- Will KB Toys Live On After Liquidation?
- Time to Get Classy: Picking A Winning Luxury Brand
- 'Clunkers' Was An 'Ingenious' Way to Coax Spending
Questions? Comments? Email us at
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes